


Don't Believe In Fate

by BlondieSheep



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Based on a Tumblr Post, Episode: s01e10 And the Loom of Fate, F/M, Fluff and Angst, I'm Sorry, Post-Episode: s01e10 And the Loom of Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 16:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3576126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlondieSheep/pseuds/BlondieSheep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eve is armed with a baseball bat and Flynn is sharing random facts no one cares about. Just another typical day at the Library... until it's not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Believe In Fate

"Flynn, drop!"

He did so without a second thought. As he lay stunned on the ground, he mused how much his life had changed. He'd once been quite vocal in his objections to the Library giving him a Guardian, most certain that he could take care of himself without any help, thank you very much. Now he was eternally grateful to the Library for sending him Eve Baird. And not just for this current moment, where she was swinging a baseball bat over his head to fend off the Disney’s Tinkerbelle-sized Faeries that were hounding them.

Quick as he could, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag full of acorns. Nothing special to look at, just acorns that looked perfectly ordinary. But the sight of the acorns in Flynn’s hand produced a battle cry from the Faeries who regrouped in mid-air, looking like they were preparing for a final charge.

“Do it now!”

“Doing it!” Flynn shouted back as he opened the bag. He shook all the acorns onto the ground and then jumped to his feet. "Eve, we're good!"

She lowered her baseball bat from her defensive posture and ran, quickly catching up with his own retreating feet. They ran a few yards before Flynn risked a glance over his shoulder. He grabbed Eve's arm as he slowed both of them to a stop. Chests heaving, the pair watched the entire Faerie colony leave off their charge in favor of descending upon the acorns Flynn had left behind. There was a great deal cheering and fist pumping to begin the celebration of their apparent victory.

“Why the hell were those Faeries so possessive over a handful of acorns?” Eve asked while she doubled over to catch her breath.

Flynn couldn’t tear his eyes away from the little creatures who were quite literally dancing with joy for the return of their prized seeds. “Well, when you’re a forest elemental, then every aspect of your forest is precious to you. But more specifically, I believe these acorns were part of the batch specifically selected for their mating season-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she interrupted.

Now he looked over at his Guardian. “Oh, but the Faerie mating ritual is fascinating. The males take the acorns and-”

A hand fell on his mouth, very effectively sealing his lips shut. Eve leaned in, eye to eye with him. “I’ve told you before, unless it is pertinent and vitally important to our mission, as in we will most assuredly die without this information, I don’t want to hear about the mating habits of any mythical creatures. Not Faeries, not dragons, not trolls, not harpies, not Chimera, not unicorns, not a single one. Got it, Librarian?”

Rendered speechless by her grip, he settled for merely nodding. When Eve pulled her hand away, she was not in the least bit surprised to see his signature grin back on his face. “Really, I don’t know why you’re so set against hearing about that stuff. It’s a natural part of life, even for creatures of legend.”

“It probably has something to do with that time you went way too in depth with all the different ways mermaids do it over dinner.”

“Well that was only because we were eating sushi, which made me think of fish, which made me think of the mermaids. It's a very obvious train of thought to follow."

"Flynn, it was my birthday. You spent twenty minutes on my birthday talking about it."

"But it's so interesting! Really, you could fill a whole college class just on mermaids. See, whether they're eggbearers or livebearers depends entirely on their location because there are different species of mermaids and you won't find them congregating close together because, as is well known, mermaids are extremely territorial and - hey, Eve, wait up!”

The Colonel was already walking away from him, smiling and shaking her head when he finally noticed he'd lost his audience and had to jog to catch up to her. Knowing him like she did, she’d be hearing about the mating habits of various beings from storybooks, as well as many other disturbing topics, for the rest of her days… and she was okay with that.

They walked together in silence, heading towards the abandoned cabin where the Back Door had opened. After a while, Flynn reached over to hold her hand, the one not currently gripping the baseball bat. She curled her fingers around his, feeling a bit like a teenager on her first date with her crush. That image was only encouraged when Flynn started enthusiastically swinging their joined hands back and forth. Eve tensed her arm to stop the motion, which he retaliated with a shoulder bump that nearly knocked her over. The wooden bat suddenly lifted up to his eye-level, the threat silent but obvious, even if it was somewhat marred by the smile she was failing to hide. Flynn grinned back and settled down for the remainder of the walk, contenting himself with occasionally squeezing her fingers.

After walking for a while, the cabin finally appeared in view and they opened the door to see the Annex waiting for them, just like they’d left it. The Librarian took a deep breath, loving the musty smell of antique books and ancient artifacts that was the Library. Eve stepped away from him, her fingers slipping from his grasp.

For some reason, the lost contact bothered Flynn. He wanted to wrap Eve up in his arms, wanted to feel her skin against his, wanted to keep her safe and close to him… The desire seemed to nudge at a memory just on the edge of his mind, something that he needed to remember…

Then Eve turned back, smiling at him from across the Annex, and all was right once again.

“That was quite a trip, wasn’t it? Who knew a handful of Faeries could cause so much trouble?” she said.

“You’re clearly not a reader of much classic literature,” Flynn replied. He closed the Back Door and powered down the globe. “We’re lucky that situation didn’t escalate past the ‘annoying but mostly harmless prank’ stage of Faerie vengeance.”

“Well you weren’t the one getting the brunt of their attacks back there. I think their little spears poked a few holes in my jacket.” She shrugged said article of clothing off her shoulders to inspect the fabric.

Flynn laughed, joining her at the table where she rested her jacket. “Trust me, it could have gotten a lot worse, and a lot weirder. I don’t think either of us could pull off the ‘head of a donkey’ look.”

Eve spared him one narrowed-eyed ‘what the hell are you talking about’ glance before giving her jacket another pass. “I think this is up to one more trip. Where are we off to next?”

She was reaching for the Clippings Book but he caught her hand with his own. He had something else in mind. “Actually, what would you say to a quiet night in?”

“I’d say who are you and have what you done with Flynn Carsen,” Eve responded without hesitation.

He tugged her hand away from the Clippings Book, turning her to face him. “Come on, Jenkins will be cataloging all night long, Charlene is busy with her receipts, and last we heard from Cassandra, Stone, and Jones, they were in Australia. We’ve already hit our ‘saving the world twice before Friday’ quota and it’s only Wednesday. Plus we haven’t had a proper date in a while.”

That last comment triggered a laugh from Eve. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a ‘proper’ date, Flynn.”

"What about when the Satyrs invited us to their festival for Dionysus a few weeks ago?"

Eve considered this a moment. "True... though you needed a little help staying on your feet by the end of the night."

"Let the record show that I very rarely have issues holding my liquor," he defended himself. "I just underestimated that the drinks made to honor the God of Wine himself would be so... potent."

"Still, I'll count that one as a proper date," she said.

"So," Flynn pressed on, "Let me add another tally to that list. This one without the company of anything magical, if you'd prefer."

Eve eyed him, not entirely ready to believe him. “You’re sure that’s what you want? You’re not going to be so bored that you annoy me after ten minutes?”

“I’m sure, and I promise to do my best to keep my annoyances to a tolerable level, just for you.”

“Well when you put it like that, it’s just too good of an offer to pass up.” Maybe it was just the way that her shoulders slumped slightly as she relaxed her stiff, military, ‘ready for anything’ posture but Flynn could swear that he saw the shift in her from Guardian to just Eve. He felt oddly privileged to see this side of her, even more honored that the thought of a date with him was the cause of it. Flynn might be well known for running out the door towards anything that might hint at another adventure but that didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate a quiet evening with the woman he had fallen so very hard for. In fact, he was downright looking forward to it.

“What did you have in mind for this proper date?” The Colonel inquired.

“Oh I’ve put a great deal of thought into it, which included very detailed research on the mating behavior of Homo sapiens.”

“No!” Eve immediately pulled her hands out of his grasp and turned away when he reached for her again. “No no no! No more mating stuff, Flynn! We’ve been through this!”

“Eve, you do know Homo sapiens are humans, right?” he asked as he followed her in a circle around the Annex.

“Of course, Flynn, but you’re probably going to tell me about the behaviors of a long dead culture or some little known people hidden away from modern day civilization and I don’t want to hear it!”

With a lunge, he caught up to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her back against his chest. If anyone else tried that move on Eve, it would have ended with her flipping them over her head to fall flat on their backs on the floor. Even so, give the current circumstances, he wondered if Eve wasn’t tempted to flip him anyway. But Flynn held on tight, resting his chin on her shoulder and speaking softly into her ear, “Fascinating as those might be, my primary focus was those of a modern day American pairing, where the male puts on a grand courtship with many complicated gestures for the intended female. One of those features inviting the potential mate over for a home-cooked meal, followed by viewing a film for the sole intention of cuddling together upon the couch."

Flynn felt her laugh rumble in her body. "I guess if we must follow the strict guidelines of the traditional courtship, it wouldn't be the worst thing."

"Of course, if you'd prefer the ways of this tiny tribe I met in the rain forest a few years ago..."

In the span of a few heartbeats, he went from holding Eve against him with her arms pinned to her sides to being face down on the table, completely immobile with his arms twisted behind his back. Well, at least it wasn’t the flip over the head he’d feared.

"Just quit while you're still in my good graces, Librarian," she said.

"Okay, okay, I yield, I yield," he pleaded.

Eve let him up and was shaking her head when he stood up with his damn grin back on his face. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Let me treat you to that dinner and movie?"

"Turn that 'home-cooked meal' into a 'large delivery pizza with bacon and pineapple and a pack of beer' and you have a deal."

He'd been hoping to wine and dine her a bit but that could wait for another time. “As you wish.”

“You can pick the movie, as long as it is something that can’t be found on the History Channel.”

Flynn offered her his hand. “Shall we seal this accord?”

She snorted and slipped her hand in his. “Deal.”

They shared a firm handshake before Flynn was tugging her forward to wrap his arms around her. He knew he was tempting her temper far too much but his desire to hold her could not be ignored. Eve didn’t tense or try to get away though; she returned the gesture with her own arms going around his waist as she laid her head against his chest.

With the thrill of another adventure still in his system, with Eve in his arms, with the knowledge that the Library was returned, with all the possibilities of the future open to them, that moment was perfect and he wanted it to last forever.

But it was too perfect. And the dream was starting to fade.

\---

Even as he woke, as he became aware of the blankets covering him and the hum of the fan over his bed, Flynn tried to hang onto the dream. But it was already gone and he was left only with his reality.

He remembered. Every detail of that day was carved in his brain now. Cassandra crying and Jake holding her shaking form, trying to comfort even as he looked away. Ezekiel standing silently nearby, his eyes wide and his head shaking, as if to deny what had happened. Charlene appearing from between the shelves to witness it all. Jenkins walking in from the Annex with a white sheet in his hands. Eve in his arms, cold and still.

Eve Baird was dead.

The Oil of Bathesheba hadn’t worked. It couldn’t. Eve’s very life had been the key to opening the Library door. The blood had been the trigger but a spell of such power required a sacrifice that none of them had realized. Even the Oil couldn’t reverse what had already been promised to the spell.

Jenkins later said some empty words about Eve being woven into the Loom of Fate and that it was a great honor to be part of such a destiny. Flynn would have punched him if he couldn’t see how the Caretaker was just trying to cover up his own sorrow. It gave the Librarian no comfort to know that Eve had died to protect the whole world and return the Library to its rightful place.

All he wanted was her.

Flynn was already stretching out a hand towards his bedside table. When he lay back on his bed, he was holding a small item that fit in the palm of his hand. It was the tusk of a Baku, a mythical Japanese creature that fed upon dreams and nightmares. The Library had housed it for years, obtained from an antique auction and safely shelved away. Legend said that the tusk of a Baku could allow someone to control the dreams of others, and it was that legend that had driven Flynn to sneak it to his home without any of the others noticing its disappearance.

Gripping the borrowed artifact in his hands, Flynn placed one fingertip on the surprisingly sharp point and pressed down as hard as he could. The tip of the tusk pierced his skin but he barely noticed anymore. He watched as a drop of blood rolled down the side of the tusk, finally falling to join the growing number of dried bloodstains on his sheets.

“Eve Baird,” he whispered to the magic of the Baku. “I want Eve Baird.”

Flynn felt a pulse of power from the artifact in his hands. First just a trickle but quickly growing, brushing against his mind to see what he was offering it. Flynn fed that little pool of magic with his memories of Eve: her quick-wit and skills that impressed him when they’d first met, the stubbornness to match his own that made her stick around even when he tried to push her away, the sharp-eyed intelligence that allowed them to solve that first case together, the fierce protectiveness of the LITs he’d placed under her care and pride as she helped them find their true potential, the unshakeable trust she put in him even in impossible situations, the love in her eyes the times they’d kissed, the calm acceptance of her fate as it was taken from her hands…

All of these he gave to the Baku’s magic. Every detail he could pull from his memories he willingly shared. The magic accepted what he offered, studying Eve Baird as he had known her and readying the spell. The build-up of power in his mind suddenly vanished, like a wave pulling away from shore and back into open water.

Flynn glanced at his finger, the cut from the tusk gone, courtesy of the spell. He was grateful for this side-effect; he didn’t know how he would have explained the injury away every day to the others. He carefully replaced the tusk back on the bedside table and sat back against the headboard, staring at the wall as he waited.

He shouldn’t be doing this, Flynn knew that. He knew Eve would think if she was here. She’d knock him out of bed and tell him to stop moping, that there was work to be done, a whole world to be saved. And he would do it. Tomorrow, he’d get up and return to the Library, prepared for whatever mission that awaited him. Flynn would throw himself into his duty, consult with Jenkins and Charlene on whatever the Clippings Book brought to their attention, help the former-LITs if they should come for assistance, run off to another country to take on a bad guy or recover an artifact that could doom all of mankind.

But… all his years with the Library, tempted by the magic and the knowledge, protecting its secrets from the world and the world from its secrets, he was owed. He had done everything the Library had ever asked of him; given up family and friends and lovers for this life, sacrificed what he wanted for the greater good, as Judson had taught him. This once, Flynn was giving into his selfishness. The Library itself had brought Eve into his life only to take her away months later. It really expected him to just accept that?

He couldn’t bring her back. The incident in King Solomon’s mines had been warning enough. Even though he wanted with all his heart to bring his father back, the magic was wrong. Every word of the spell he’d spoken felt twisted and the power it called upon left his skin crawling. That path was closed. He couldn’t bring Eve back from the dead.

This one small token though, the tusk of a legendary creature whose diet was literally dreams and nightmares, it was enough. It allowed him to fall into a dream so deep that it nearly felt real. His own mind eventually broke through the magic but, for the time that the spell remained in place, it seemed like reality. It was the closest Flynn could get to having Eve back in his arms. And whatever the price of the magic might be, with his drops of blood or something else down the line, he’d happily pay it. Even the barely-passable illusion was better than his reality.

Flynn had to pass every day knowing that Eve was gone forever. At night, he could enjoy the dreams for a time.

The magic suddenly crashed back into him, releasing the energy it had been gathering for the spell. No flashing lights accompanied this spell; just a feeling of utter exhaustion.

Flynn slumped down against his pillows as the spelled sleep settled onto him. His eyes closed and he cleared his head of all lingering thoughts of Eve limp in his arms. He wanted whatever fiction the Baku could spin for him.

\---

His footsteps echoed off the bookcases as Flynn walked down the familiar hallways of the Library. He passed by all the artifacts and books without a glance, intent only on the door at the end of his path. It opened onto the Annex that was empty save for a single figure standing in the center of the room.

Eve Baird looked up at his entrance. The Clippings Book was open before her, pages still glowing from its most recent entry. The light reflected off her face as Eve met his eyes, ready to run beside him to the next impending adventure.

“Where shall we go today, Librarian?”

**Author's Note:**

> Completely and totally inspired by ExcaliburFeels' GIFset so clearly all blame can be left there: http://excaliburfeels.tumblr.com/post/110230893154/evlynn-aueve-dies-like-she-was-fated-flynn-is 
> 
> The GIFs hit me hard in the feels and I just had to go with it. Enjoy the angst!
> 
> The mention of King Solomon's Mines is a reference to the second Librarian film. I actually didn't even watch it until halfway through writing this fic but it was the perfect addition.


End file.
